Quote Originally Posted by CEB View Post
You learn to fight by fighting.
Not totally sure about this. If you're just dropped on the mat and keep getting the crap pounded out of you then are you learning much? (Okay, it worked for Steve Rogers....) People got injured (not just hurt) every week. I did not think that was a great way to train.

I stopped MMA and went to Judo because of this. After a little time at the Judo club (where some of the MMA guys trained, too), I had learned enough to be able to survive long enough to continue to learn at the MMA club, if that makes sense.

So I don't think that learning to fight by fighting only is the way to go. Some technical instruction first, some drilling, and then adding some randomness (non-choreographed counter-moving opponent) and then increasing the intensity seems to be a more effective teacher, at least in my eyes.

The watered-down MA schools seem to stop short of that full-intensity training.

And, of course, you cannot learn about terrain, physical and social environment, emotions, drugs and booze, and all those "real world" things in a dojo. By definition, the dojo/gym is meant to remove those variables. One learns to duel in a gym/dojo as opposed to kind of fighting that happens more often.